Archive for the 'U S Senate' Tag Under 'Total Buzz' Category

President Barack Obama met with congressional leaders in the White House today in search of a budget deal for the rest of the fiscal year and to avoid a federal shutdown Friday, but no agreement was reached.

Obama emerged from the meeting more optimistic than the Republican leaders.

"We're now closer than we've ever been to getting an agreement," Obama said afterward. According to the Washington Post, Obama said he agreed to $73 billion in cuts as originally proposed by House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio).

"The only question is whether politics or ideology are going to get in the way” of heading off a federal government shutdown," the Post quotes Obama as saying.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., was joined by two other senators today in introducing a bill that would repeal the Defense of Marriage Act, a law that blocks the federal government from recognizing same-gender marriages. A coinciding bill was introduced in the House of Representatives.

In February, the White House announced it was ending legal defense of DOMA because it believed it violated the equal protection clause of the Constitution.

Among the federal benefits sought by same-gender married couples: Joint federal income taxes and accompanying deductions; spousal benefits under Social Security; unpaid leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act when a spouse is ill; protections of the estate tax when one spouse passes and wants to leave his or her possessions to another.

Same-sex marriage advocates also hope the repeal of DOMA will bring federal legalization of gay marriage a step closer.

“There are tens of thousands of legally married same-sex couples in the United States, and more than 18,000 in my home state of California alone,” Feinstein said. “These couples live their lives like all married people; they share the bills, they raise children together, and they care for each other in good times and bad, in sickness and in health, until death do they part. But because of DOMA, they have been denied federal protections. It is time to right this wrong. This bill will ensure that all married couples in the United States enjoy equal protection of our laws.”

The House of Representatives today approved a temporary budget bill - with $6 billion in cuts - that will fund the federal government for three weeks after the current two-week stop-gap extension expires Friday.

The measure was passed 271-158 in a bipartisan vote. The Senate is likely to approve it and send it to Barack Obama to sign into law, according to the Associated Press. The White House supports the measure (see statement below).

House Republicans initially approved a bill - with $61 billion in cuts - to keep the government running through the end of the fiscal year, September 30. However, Senate Democrats and Obama opposed the size and targets of the cuts, forcing the subsequent stop-gap measures.

Rep. John Campbell, R-Irvine, had opposed the $61 billion in cuts because he said more were needed. He was also the sole Orange County Republican voting against today's stop gap, with the others voting for it. Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Santa Ana, was one of three representatives not to cast a vote on the bill.

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., today called House Republicans' proposed $61 billion in budget cuts a "political vendetta" that would jeopardize the nation's economic recovery and severely cut a number of key programs.

She said the cuts were "extreme - dangerous on many levels," and enumerated billions in cuts that would hit California and tens of thousands of Californians.

The cuts are not expected to be approved by the Senate or President Barack Obama. But during Boxer's press conference call this afternoon, she was asked about the federal government shutdown that will occur if a deal's not worked out by March 4.

"We don't need to be in a shut down mode at all," Boxer told reporters. "We have to act like adults. You don't take all your marbles and go home because you don't get everything you want."Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid today called for a 30-day stop-gap spending bill to prevent the shutdown, but House Majority Leader Eric Cantor rejected Reid's proposal of a short-term “continuing resolution” as insufficient.

“The short-term CR plan that Senate Democrat Leader Harry Reid announced today shows – yet again – that he is not serious about cutting spending and getting our fiscal house in order," Cantor said in a statement. “While Leader Reid claims that his plan cuts spending, all it does is lock in the status quo spending levels which increased 24 percent over the past two years. I challenge him to identify a single cut from current spending levels included in his plan.”

If Washington, D.C. lawmakers fail to reach a budget deal by March 4, the federal government will shut down except for "essential" services like national security and self-funding agencies like the U.S. Mint.

That could mean no passports would be issued or renewed, and all national museums and parks would be closed. It would likely halt paychecks to most government workers, and could also interfere with Social Security and military benefit checks.

The standoff between House Republicans, who've outlined $61 billion in cuts from the $1.2 trillion spending bill, and Democrats in the Senate along with President Barack Obama, recalls similar shutdowns in 1995 and 1996.

The Senate voted 63 to 37 Thursday to send Elena Kagan to the United States Supreme Court marking the first time in history that the high court will have three women.

Five Republicans voted to support her nomination and just one Democrat, Sen. Ben Nelson of Nebraska, voted no.

Both of California's Democratic senators voted yes and went to the floor on Wednesday to speak in favor of President Barack Obama's solicitor general and former Harvard Law School Dean.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who as a member of the Judiciary Committee questioned Kagan during her confirmation hearing, said the nominee has "an amazing background. You would think she is 106 instead of a very young woman.'' Kagan is 50.

"I believe Elena Kagan's professional background makes her superbly qualified to sit on the Supreme Court,'' Feinstein said."We badly need a Justice who can drive this Court toward consensus, and I have high hopes Elena Kagan will be just such a Justice.''

With just hours to go before the U.S. Senate leaves for a five-week August recess, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York is leading a group of Democratic senators to push for a vote on a $600 million border security measure that includes unmanned aerial drones and 1,500 new enforcement agents.

UPDATE: In a surprise move the Senate passed this bill. Although Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said he would have preferred 3,000 more border agents and had some other things to add to Schumer's bill, he and other Republican lawmakers called this measure a good first step.

Because there was no objection to the bill it passed without a roll call vote. The question now is whether the House will pass it next week when they return for a day to take up another bill the Senate passed this week. See below for an explanation of that and some comments from McCain and other senators.

The bill is $100 million less than a similar bill the House passed last week and that Senate Republicans tried to get passed a month ago.

Schumer, who chairs the Senate's immigration subcommittee, said his measure has a major difference with the House bill: "It's fully paid for without increasing the deficit by a single penny.''

Rand Paul, a key early leader of the Tea Party movement and son of former presidential candidate, Rep. Ron Paul, Tuesday clobbered Trey Grayson, the hand-picked candidate of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in Kentucky's Senate GOP primary.

“I have a message, a message from the tea party,'' Paul told his supporters at a victory speech. “A message that is loud and clear and doesn't mince words. We've come to take our government back.'' Paul said the Tea Party's victory Tuesday was "huge." With votes still to be counted Paul got 60 percent of the vote.

Paul's election is likely to be seen as one of the building blocks in this year's political story that voters will be flocked to anti-Washington and anti-establishment candidates. Paul is an opthamologist and ran on a platform that includes his desire to abolish several federal departments, including Education and Agriculture and cutting government spending and regulation.

Less than a week after a group of senators called on Iran to release three detained hikers the Iranian government has apparently granted visas to the families of the UC Berkeley grads so they can visit their children.

"Today, I received official word from the families that the Iranian government has finally approved their visas for travel. I am so happy that the families will be able to see their children, who have been battling isolation and health problems while in prison,'' said Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., who organized last week's news conference. " But none of us can rest until Sarah, Josh and Shane are released from prison and are home safely.”

Sarah Shourd, Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer have been held by Iran since last July after they crossed an unmarked border into Iran while they were hiking in Iraq's Kurdistan region. Iran labeled them as spies but has not charged them with any crime. According to Shourd's cousin, Laguna Beach lawyer Patrick Sandys, they also haven't been questioned in months.

"We're very excited,'' Sandys said Tuesday. The mothers are hoping to get the visas on Wednesday, meet in New York City and hopefully fly to Tehran as early as Monday. Nora Shourd, Laura Fattal and Cindy Hickey had applied for visas in January. They had repeatedly been told the visas were going to be granted but then they never were issued.

Nora Shourd and Hickey are together in Minnesota, Sandys said. The two have been spending most of their time together, working to try to free their children.

The Senate just voted 60-34 to end debate on the latest extension of unemployment benefits. The bill had been objected to before the chamber's Easter recess by Oklahoma Republican Sen. Tom Coburn and the only way to break this latest filibuster was to get those 60 votes.

Four Republicans voted with the Democrats to allow a vote on the $9 billion bill that would once again extend jobless benefits for 30 days and also continue the subsidy for COBRA health insurance premiums. Republicans voting yes were Sens. Scott Brown of Massachusetts, Susan Collins and Olympia Snow of Maine and George Voinovich of Ohio.

The Senate is poised to vote on the actual extension later this week.

Vote here on whether you think Congress should have extended the unemployment benefits.